Māori mega scholar is the next Axworthy Lecturer

WINNIPEG, MB – UWinnipeg is excited to announce that the upcoming Axworthy Distinguished Lecture will be given by world renowned Māori scholar Dr. Linda Tuhiwai Smith of Aotearoa (New Zealand) on Saturday, April 7, 2018 at 3:00 pm at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG).

Prior to the lecture there will be a special tour of INSURGENCE/RESURGENCE, the WAG’s largest exhibition of contemporary Indigenous art to date, from 1:30 – 2:30 pm. The tour will be led by co-curators Dr. Julie Nagam, UWinnipeg Chair in the History of Indigenous Art in North America — a joint appointment with UWinnipeg and the WAG — and Jaimie Isaac, WAG Curator of Indigenous and Contemporary Art. These events are co-sponsored by the WAG. Jaime Isaac is the Curator of indigenous and contemporary art

“To have Dr. Smith is an honor for both UWinnipeg and the Winnipeg Art Gallery,” shared Nagam. “We are thrilled to host her during the final month of INSURGENCE/RESURGENCE and continue an international Indigenous dialogue. This Maori megastar has contributed to all of the fields in the humanities and social sciences as she wrote the landmark book Decolonizing Methodologies, which has been instrumental in Indigenous scholarship for almost 20 years.”

Recently noted at the Fulbright Symposium in Kona, Hawaii this past March, the exhibitions and over indigenization of the WAG has invoked all 25 calls for decolonizing research methods suggested by Smith.

“It is extremely timely that we will host Dr. Smith in our territory to continue this decolonial dialogue and transformation,” continued Nagam.

UWinnipeg will honour Smith with a Special Convocation on Friday, April 6, 2018 at 12:30 pm in Convocation Hall, 3rd floor, Wesley Hall with an Honourary Doctor of Laws.

BIOGRAPHYDr. Linda Tuhiwai Smith is an internationally accomplished scholar and researcher who has worked in and influenced the field of Māori education and health for many years. Her groundbreaking book Decolonising Methodologies Research and Indigenous Peoples (1998) remains an international best seller, translated into Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Italian, and Bhasa Indonesian. This seminal work is a foundational resource for critiques of the existing relationship between dominant institutional research protocols and Indigenous knowledge systems. It has led to many other authors publishing books that guide students, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, today and into the future.

Smith is herself widely published in numerous journals and books. She continues to inspire Indigenous thinkers to become scholars of their own epistemologies, and to recognize and relearn that Indigenous peoples need to lead research based on their own traditional ways of inquiry.

Smith has held several positions, including the founding Co-Director of the Maori Centre of Research Excellence, the Pro-Vice Chancellor Māori and Dean of the School of Māori and Pacific Development at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. She is currently Professor of Maori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato.

Smith has received many awards for research excellence and contribution to Maori education. In 2013 she was honoured as a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services in education and to Māori people. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2016. In 2017 she received the Prime Minister’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in Education.

With her colleague and husband, Professor Graham Smith, she co-developed the first undergraduate and graduate courses on Māori education and Indigenous education to be taught at a New Zealand university.

Smith provides an invaluable reference point for any institution committed to Indigenizing its spaces and approaches to scholarship. She has called out clearly for academic institutions to recognize that Indigenous knowledge(s) should not be subordinate to dominant scholarly knowledge(s), but rather must be respected as parallel ways of knowing.

The Axworthy Distinguished Lecture Series on Social Justice and the Public Good invites front-ranking researchers, social commentators and political leaders to the University of Winnipeg to deliver free lectures open to the public. The Axworthy Lecture Series has been established to honour Dr. Lloyd Axworthy, Former President of the University of Winnipeg.